004 - Theodore Roosevelt's Ride to the Presidency

Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States and is the youngest individual to hold the office. But, do you know the incredible chain of events leading up to Teddy Roosevelt's presidency? In this podcast episode, follow along as we take you on Theodore Roosevelt's Ride to the Presidency. 

Transcript

[Preview] Here at the Adirondack Experience, we have a lot of artifacts and a lot of exhibits. Each artifact holds a unique story of its own. Join us on today’s podcast episode as we take you inside the museum. 

[fade out Spy music]

[Artifact Connection] [carriage sounds] In our Life in the Adirondacks exhibit at the museum, we have a brown carriage with big, bright yellow wheels from the 1890s. While it may seem like a regular old carriage used to carry people around, this artifact tells a much bigger story of a night ride to the presidency of the United States.

[Intro] Ready to earn some extra credit? This is Taylor and Diane and you are listening to ADKX-tra Credit. A history podcast for students made by the Adirondack Experience, the Museum on Blue Mountain Lake,  located in the heart of the Adirondack Park of New York State.

[The Event]

[Taylor] [crowd noises, presidential music] In early September 1901, the 25th President of the United States, William McKinley, was attending the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. 

[Diane] Taylor, can you explain to our listeners what the Pan-American Exposition was?

[Taylor] It was a fair that lasted for 7 months and thousands of people went to it. Now, this wasn’t like the state fair that you may have been to in Syracuse. This fair was an amazing display of North, South, and Central America’s technology, science, music, transportation, buildings, and more! It was the first major event to use lots of electricity--Thomas Edison’s light bulbs lit up the fair each night!

[Diane] On September 6, 1901, President McKinley was greeting groups of Exposition visitors when a man stepped out of the crowd and shot him several times. The president was taken into surgery, everyone hoping that he would survive--including his vice-president, Theodore Roosevelt, often referred to as Teddy Roosevelt...I’ll bet everyone’s heard of him? 

[Taylor] At the time, Vice President Roosevelt was in Vermont as a guest of the Vermont Fish & Game Club. He loved the outdoors and nature, so this event was right up his alley. Once hearing the news about President McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt rushed to Buffalo, New York. President McKinley’s surgery went well, and doctors, and Vice President Roosevelt himself, were confident that the president would be okay.

[Diane] Mr. Roosevelt said “Everything is going on most satisfactorily with the President. I feel assured not only that he will recover, but that his recovery will be so speedy that in a very short time he will be able to resume his duties.” 

[Taylor] Because doctors were very confident that the President was going to be just fine, they told the vice president he didn’t need to stay in Buffalo any longer. So, after hearing this, Mr. Roosevelt met up with his family who were vacationing up in the Adirondacks at the time.

[Diane] Vice President Roosevelt’s wife, Edith, wrote this to her husband’s older sister: 

“Sept. 10, 1901: Theodore arrived naturally much relieved at the rapid recovery of the President...Rain is pouring and we are planning to camp out tonight...He told me the President was really entirely out of danger and we could enjoy ourselves in the Adirondacks.”

[Taylor] Happily, the vice-president met up with his wife and family at the Tahawus Club near Newcomb, New York in the central Adirondacks. Being surrounded by mountains, Mr. Roosevelt and a small group of people he knew decided to hike New York’s highest point, Mount Marcy. And so, the Vice President and his party headed up the mountain and into the wilderness, many many miles away from the nearest town or human being!  

[Diane] Back to Buffalo, New York. It’s now September 13, 1901-- 7 days after the President was shot. While President McKinley’s surgery went well and it seemed like he was going to be alright, now, his health was getting much worse. Those around the president were saying he would not survive. Teddy Roosevelt’s private secretary, William Loeb, was sent to North Creek, New York with a message that would bring the vice-president back to Buffalo as soon as possible. 

[Taylor] The message with Mr. Loeb read:

“Buffalo, NY. Hon T. Roosevelt: The President appears to be dying and members of Cabinet in Buffalo think you should lose no time in coming.”

[Diane] Adirondack Guide, Harrison Hall, was sent as a messenger up Mount Marcy, the mountain Teddy Roosevelt was climbing, to deliver the grim news of McKinley’s failing health to the vice-president. Mr. Roosevelt and his small party were resting up at a place called Lake Tear of the Clouds, just below the summit of Mount Marcy when they saw Harrison Hall come out of the woods. 

[Taylor] Theodore Roosevelt later said this about the moment “After reaching the top I had descended a few hundred feet to a shelf of land where there was a little lake, when I saw a guide coming out of the woods on our trail from below. I felt at once that he had bad news and, sure enough, he handed me a telegram saying that the President’s condition was much worse and that I must come to Buffalo immediately.”

 (TR: An Autobiography)

[Diane] With this news, Vice President Roosevelt had to get back to Buffalo. But his location deep in the Adirondack wilderness made it a bit of a challenge.

[Taylor] For 6 hours, the vice president took 3 different carriages for 35 miles, only stopping briefly for bits of rest. The roads were muddy and it was hard to see because they were traveling in the middle of the night. 

[Diane] On the 3rd and final ride through the Adirondacks, a man by the name of Michael Cronin, who was owner of Aiden Lair, a hotel in Minerva, New York, would use his carriage and horses to take Theodore Roosevelt on the last few miles to the North Creek train station. 

[Taylor] Mr. Cronin said “I made the last sixteen mile relay in one hour and forty-one minutes. It was the darkest night I ever saw. I could not even see my horses except for the spots where the flickering lantern light fell on them.”

[Diane] Remember that carriage that we talked about in the beginning of this podcast? Yep. The carriage that we have in our Life In the Adirondacks exhibit is the same carriage that Theodore Roosevelt rode in on his way to the train station that night in 1901. With Cronin in the driver’s seat and Mr. Roosevelt holding a lantern right next to him, the men traveled at fast speeds in the complete darkness of night--it was truly the night ride to the presidency. 

[Taylor] When reflecting back on that night, Theodore Roosevelt recalled this “The roads were the ordinary wilderness roads and the night was dark. But we changed horses two or three times--when I say “we” I mean the driver and I, as there was no one else with us--and reached the station just at dawn, to learn from Mr. Loeb, who had a special train waiting, that the President was dead.” (TR: An Autobiography, 1913)

[Diane] Michael Cronin had known that President McKinley was dead when Vice President Roosevelt hopped into his carriage. Throughout his 16 mile journey with Teddy Roosevelt, Cronin did not mention one word about President McKinley’s death. He had decided he wouldn’t add to Mr. Roosevelt’s worries and thought it was best that he hear the news from Mr. Loeb, his own private secretary. All that Michael Cronin needed to focus on was getting the new president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt,  to the next stop.

[Diane] At 4:45am on September 14th,Theodore Roosevelt made it to the North Creek train station. 

By this time, Mr.Roosevelt was finally told that President McKinley had died just hours before. After taking the train and arriving in Buffalo, Theodore Roosevelt took the oath of office and became the 26th President of the United States later that same day. 

[Transition]

[Roles of Government]

[Taylor] It’s important to know how our government is set up in order to understand the importance of Teddy Roosevelt’s Night Ride to the Presidency and why he had to quickly leave the Adirondacks to get to Buffalo, New York.

[Diane] The United States constitution is the highest law in the U.S. and it tells us a lot of different things about how our government should work. It splits our government into three separate branches--The Legislative, Judicial, and Executive branches. Each has their own role in our national government. The Legislative Branch writes the laws, the Judicial Branch decides if laws agree with the constitution, and the Executive branch carries out the laws.

[Taylor] Our Executive branch of government is set up in a very specific way. It’s made up of the President, the Vice-President, and the Members of the President’s Cabinet. 

The President is the leader of the United States and its military.

The Vice-President supports the president and is next in line to be president if the president is unable to do the job, for reasons such as death, impeachment, or resignation. They’re kind of like the substitute teacher that steps in when the teacher can’t be at school. 

And the members of the cabinet give advice and help to the president through their different departments and carry out different government decisions. 

[Transition]

[Diane] Here’s how the Night Ride to the Presidency fits in…when President McKinley was shot, many didn’t know if he would survive. 

Who becomes president when a president dies? The Vice President. 

And who was McKinley’s vice president? Theodore Roosevelt. 

[Taylor] That’s why it was so important that Vice President Roosevelt get out of the Adirondack Mountains and why cabinet members wanted him to come back to Buffalo as soon as they realized that President McKinley was going to die. 

[Diane] Now, here in the United States, we have a very special ceremony that officially makes an individual president of the United States. It’s called an Inauguration. It’s a big event that takes place on the steps of the U.S. capitol in Washington D.C. and thousands of people come to it. 

[Taylor] For President Theodore Roosevelt, he didn’t have a big inauguration in Washington D.C. after McKinley died. He officially became President of the United States when he took the oath of office at the Ainsley Wilcox home in Buffalo, New York. The oath of office is a promise that a president makes to do the job of president to the best of their abilities and to “preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the United States.”

[Diane] While Teddy Roosevelt may have officially become president of the United States when he took the oath of office in Buffalo, he had really become the president as soon as President McKinley died and while he was making his way out of the Adirondacks. 

[Taylor] So, not only did Theodore Roosevelt take a night ride through our region’s mountains and forests, but he also became the 26th President of the United States here, too.  

[Diane] Today, you can follow the route Theodore Roosevelt took to get to North Creek on that dark, September night. The Roosevelt-Marcy trail is a 40 mile stretch of the highway that goes through Long Lake, Newcomb, Minerva, and North Creek. Here in the Adirondacks, we’re quite proud to say that the 26th President of the United States traveled these roads. 

[Outro] Thank you for joining us for an episode of ADKX-tra Credit. This podcast is brought to you by Adirondack Experience, the museum on Blue Mountain Lake. Our mission is to expand understanding of Adirondack history and the relationship between people and the Adirondack wilderness, fostering informed choices for the future.

Listen in again two weeks from now when we will have a brand new episode. In the meantime, if you want to learn more fun Adirondack history visit our website theadkx.org